State, zoo team to save endangered northwestern pond turtles by releasing them into safe home

LAKEWOOD — Nearly a year they wait, munching on crickets, mealworms and small chunks of fish to pass the time.

But Friday morning, their time came.

At a small pond in the Lakewood area — the precise location of which must be kept secret to protect the endangered species — state and local officials released 31 northwestern pond turtles back into the wild.

For the briefest moment the turtles floated in the water, one at a time, before diving under the surface. Adult turtles, released years earlier, basked in the late morning sun farther out in the pond, lining up on floating logs.

The hope, said Sue Sandersen, a zookeeper for the Woodland Park Zoo, is that by raising the turtles in captivity they’ll be strong enough to survive in the wild. Or, at the very least, large enough to avoid the invasive bullfrogs that have become their main predator. In nearly three decades, these sorts of restoration efforts run by the zoo and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have been enough to hold on to the species.

“They were circling the drain; they were going to go extinct,” Sandersen said.

A subspecies of the western pond turtle, which is found up and down the American West Coast, the northwestern pond turtle is one of Washington’s two native turtle species. When fully grown, they’ll weigh up to a couple of pounds and measure up to about 8 inches long.

Historically the species lives in the Puget Sound lowlands and the Columbia River Gorge, but for decades their numbers have been ravaged by the invasive frogs. The highly adaptive and voracious species of frogs originated in the American Southeast, Sandersen said, but people brought them to the Pacific Northwest where they flourished. And in recent years, warming temperatures exacerbated by climate change have allowed the predators to expand farther north.

By the early 1990s, fewer than 200 of the northwestern pond turtles remained in Washington. Three years later, state officials declared the turtles as endangered and restoration efforts ramped up.

Each year, Sandersen and others at the zoo will watch as the young turtles begin to cut through the shell of their eggs (the process is called “pipping”) and soon the hatchlings emerge. The team will give the turtles food and ultraviolet lights for warmth, handling them as little as possible so they don’t lose their fear of large predators.

Around the same time as the latest crop hatches, the team will release a new batch into their secret pond. They’ll notch the turtles’ shells and glue a number on them as well for future identification. Once the turtles are large enough they’ll be fitted with a tracking device, said Fish and Wildlife biologist Emily Butler.

Although the turtles are typically known by their numbers (207797 and 207764 were among those on the scene Friday) the zoo staff, donors and volunteers that line up to release them offered some more personal names.

“Their name is Theodora,” Sabrina Heise, one zoo staffer, said with a smile.

Kathy Tanner, a zoo donor, named hers Evalyn.

“After my granddaughter,” Tanner said.

Anji Moraes thought for a moment before settling on a name for hers.

“Stanley,” she said with a slight nod of her head to make it official.

Northwestern pond turtles might number up to 1,000 in the wild now, Sandersen said. That’s enough to maintain the species for now but undoubtedly it still faces challenges.

Jen Osburn Eliot, part of a similar program at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, said the broader species up and down the coast is struggling. She’s hopeful federal officials list the whole species as endangered, which would unlock even more funding and resources for restoration work.

The process takes time, Butler said. Turtles are a long-lived species and often don’t grow large enough to breed for years, sometimes up to a decade.

“It takes a while for turtles to get started,” Butler said. “Everything with turtles is kind of slow, and that’s OK.”

Moraes, who started just a few weeks ago as vice president of conservation and climate initiatives for the Woodland Park Zoo, said that pace is worth keeping in mind.

“Maybe we should all move on turtle time and appreciate what’s around us and try to sustain it,” Moraes said.

Sandersen said the turtles are an excellent indicator species, meaning they can tell humans much about the quality of the water, soil, wildlife and more. Their struggle to survive means, more broadly, that their natural environments aren’t as healthy as they once were, she said.

And the turtles’ bounce back from the brink also shows that people and these restoration efforts can make a difference, Sandersen added. The work is not only satisfying but life-affirming, she said.

“If I croak tomorrow, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be any happier than I am here today,” Sandersen said.